Posted by
Patrick Henry on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 9:59:02 PM
Like many older Americans I grew up watching my parents pursue the American dream. Get a job,
work had, own a home, buy a car, put bread on the table and put a little aside for a rainy day. As
an adult, I followed in their footsteps. It never really occurred to me to do it any other way. To
me and the people I went to school with, that WAS the American dream. Over the years, as the
warring political parties have drifted farther apart ideologically, it has become apparent to me
that there are at least two separate American dreams -- maybe more.
Conservatives envision a country in which everyone gets what he earns, produces and saves
-- no less, and no more. They cherish a government that provides for the national defense and
security, enforces the law and looks after the infrastructure -- not more. In the name of that
vision they pay their taxes and celebrate their country. Polls have repeatedly shown that the
majority of Americans hold to conservative values, whatever their party affiliation.
Liberals, on the other hand, follow what seems to be a different dream. Driven by a strong
social conscience, they are pained to see some living in affluence while others abide in
poverty. Their simple solution is to tax the wealthy and multiply government giveaways
for the poor. Enamored with Marxist socialism, they long for a classless society that
would reward the non-working at the same level as the working, the unsuccessful the same
as the succesful. Since they have long been in the minority, they seem to take great joy in
bemonaing America's weaknesses, and hypersensitive about world opinion. They tend to
court minorities whom, they believe, will resonate to their message of social and fiscal
equality, and tout big government bureaucracy as a means to achieve their ends. As a group
they tend to be less religious, more pacifist and more disdainful of any outward show of
patriotism. There dream of what America should be and what its citizens should strive
for is a very different one indeed.
As I reflected on this great divide, and the politics to which it has brought us, I could
not help but think that so much of the polemical rhetoric is out of touch with reality.
If the wise and courageous men who authored the Declaration of Independence believed
that "all men are created equal," they must have also noticed that after being created people
don't stay equal for very long. As they grow and develop some are bright, and others less so.
Some are fast, strong, athletically gifted, where others are not. Some are born into poverty
and achieve success through courage and hard work, while others are born into wealth and
squander it. And some choose to stay right where they are. The whole system tends to be
based more on the differences than the similarities between us. The grading system in the
schools allows the better students to excel over the poorer ones, leading to easier college
admission and earlier entry inti professional life. The credit system tends to rank people
according to debts and assets, assigning them greater or lesser credit worthiness. We revel in
our beauty pageants, and all that's left to those not deemed beautiful is to look on in envy
and think about "what if."
If there is such a thing as true equality in this world, it's an equality of human dignity that
proudly says, "Here I am with what I have. Give me a chance, and I'll be the best that I
can be. And that's good enough!" Government, whether large or small, can never really
give us that kind of equality. It's up to everyone to seize it by the throat and own it, whatever
his color, creed or religion. Any political philosophy that tries to re-stack the deck and give
what one man has earned to another creates only a faux reality, and really cheats people
out of the nobility of struggle. It's the old business abut the difference between giving
people fish, and teaching them how to fish.
There is a young African-American man in Houston, Texas, who is trying to help other
African-American men to understand this. His name is Warrick Baker, and I am proud to
call him my friend. He works out of a little backroom charity with male students who are
failing in the school system, and near expulsion. Going into a local high school, he takes
the worst of the worst and tries to make successful students and productive citizens of
them. He organizes each class along the lines of a corporation, utilizing the strengths and
gifts of each member. He promises them that if they, as a class, will achieve at least a B
average in school, he will help them to form a profit making business in which they can
produce their own music CD -- write the music and lyrics, give and direct the performance,
work with the studio (with which he has established a partnership in advance), design the
cover, oversee the production, design and carry out the marketing and divide or re-invest
the profits. The young people love every minute of it, their grades go straight up and they
spend less time on the streets. Furthermore, they learn valuable lessons about how to develop
a skill, interview for a job, negotiate a deal and take responsibility. These are clearly lessons
they weren't leraning at home -- OR at the school.
One evening when Warrick and I were talking, he poured out his heart about what he saw
happening to young black men. They grow up playing sports, and idolizing sports figures
like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Reggie Bush. And the tragedy is that they all think
they're going to be professional athletes. Warrick, who was a star sprinter at Louisiana
State University, tells about how, upon graduation, he showed up at the NFL
combine, the stage where those not drafted into the league showed off their wares to coaches
and agents. He said, "I was pretty cocky, and real fast. I was sure I'd be a wide receiver in the
NFL in no time. Except when I got to the combine I found out there were a whole lot of
other guys who were just as fast as me -- except they were four or five inches taller and
thirty pounds heavier." That dream ended as do the dreams of thousands of others at some
point between their school days and the real world. The point, according to Warrick, is
that their whole lives have been built around playing -- football, basketball, baseball --
and when they find out they can't "play" for a living, they become depressed and end up
just dropping out of life, many ending up in penitentiaries.
He also pointed out that these same kids have no concept of responsibility. They are
allowed to slide on their good looks, charming personalities and athletic popularity. So
they take no responsibility for their own actions -- criminal, sexual, familial, academic --
the works. His program is designed to help these kids see the mathematical improbability
of achieving a livelihood through professional sport, and the total necessity of assuming
responsibility as a means to success in the world as early as possible. I said Warrick is my
friend. I guess the truth is that he's my hero. It's a shame Warrick only gets to work with
a few black male underachievers every year. I can think of a lot of young women, not to
speak of white, hispanic and Asian-American kids who need the same kind of reality
therapy.
The surest road to equality does not lie in the mythical classless society or government
giveaway programs. It lies in achieving the vision and the courage to seize the chances
we are given and create our personal versions of the American dream. The politicians
can never create that. But each individual American can. Most everyone has abilities
as well as disadvantages. It's not about how far down we were, or how high up we climbed.
It's about each of us being proud to be us, and carving out a reality that we can live
with. Meeting someone like Warrick Baker along the way helps a whole lot. Maybe
government should look into funding him. Now that's something just about everyone
could get behind.